Sunday, January 23, 2005

Wolfsburg 1-2 Dortmund

A crowd of 29,621 in the VOLKSWAGENARENA saw the Bundesliga strugglers Borussia Dortmund gain revenge over VfL Wolfsburg for the 2-1 home defeat during the first game of the season. Two second half Dortmund goals within five minutes did the trick for Dortmund, who had little trouble controlling the home side which seemed to have trouble shaking off the winter break. The Wolves remain fourth in the Bundesliga table, at least for 24 hours. Tomorrow, Hertha could overtake them should they win their tricky away tie at Bochum. Hanover could do the same should they beat Leverkusen tomorrow.

Cautious startDortmund made a cautious start to the match and played an attractive passing game. They reached the edge of the home side’s penalty area, only to seem to run out of ideas once there. On 10 minutes the Wolves fired an initial warning shot, as Klimowicz headed over a Petrov cross. Coach Erik Gerets’ side started to take control and put the pressure on Dortmund by sending Petrov down the left wing at them. Wolfsburg’s other two strikers (Klimovicz and Topic, who was in the side for Brdaric who has bronchitis), never really got a sniff against the well organised defence around fit again Christoph Metzelder. On 28 minutes a long range effort by Quiroga was easily dealt with by the Borussia keeper Weidenfeller. The game was goalless at half time

Double Dortmund whammyAfter the break, Dortmund brought on Smolarek, who joined them from Rotterdam on a loan deal only this week. The first chance of the second half fell to D’Alessandro, who got past Dede before delivering a low cross to Pablo Thiam who fluffed his chance at the far post. Then came the Smolarek debut show…On 55 minutes Koller brought Kringe into a move which came down the Wolfsburg left hand side. Kringe left Rytter for dead before putting in a pinpoint cross to Smolarek, who reached the ball ahead of Quiroga, before calmly slotting home from five yards out. That goal put the wind into Dortmund’s sails, and they cashed in on their new found confidence by doubling their lead only five minutes later. This time Ricken sprang the Wolfsburg off side trap with a clever pass to Koller, who shrugged off a challenge by Quiroga, before scoring his side’s second.

Too little too late…The Wolves to their credit were shocked by the second goal but didn’t give up trying. On 68 minutes Topic missed a good chance to haul his side back into the game. Twenty minutes later, Petrov fed Quiroga who unleashed an unstoppable shot into the top left hand corner of the Dortmund net with Weidenfeller nowhere. The Wolves continued to mount wave upon wave of attacks, but it was all too little too late…